36 national geographic • September 2015
W
hen the American Museum
of Natural History wanted
to update the hall of North
American mammals, taxi-
dermist George Dante got
the call. When the tortoise Lonesome George,
emblem of the Galápagos Islands, died, it was
Dante who was tasked with restoring him. But
Dante, who is one of the world’s most respected
taxidermists, has never done what I’m asking him
to do. No one has.
I want Dante to design an artificial elephant
tusk that has the look and feel of confiscated
tusks loaned to me by the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service. Inside the fake tusk, I want him to
embed a custom-made GPS and satellite-based
tracking system. If he can do this, I’ll ask him to
make several more tusks. In the criminal world,
ivory operates as currency, so in a way I’m asking
Dante to print counterfeit money I can follow.
I will use his tusks to hunt the people who kill
elephants and to learn what roads their ivory
plunder follows, which ports it leaves, what ships
it travels on, what cities and countries it transits,
and where it ends up. Will artificial tusks planted
in a central African country head east—or west—
toward a coast with reliable transportation to
Asian markets? Will they go north, the most
A National Geographic Special Investigation
This story launches the National Geographic Society’s
Special Investigations Unit, which will report on wildlife
crimes. This project was made possible by a grant from
The Woodtiger Fund.
By Bryan Christy • Photographs by Brent Stirton
J. MICHAEL FAY, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY